Page 33 of Crimson Skies

“Eden?” Loki said.

The imp joined her as she stepped down into the pit. The soft radiance that had caught her eye lit the underside of the stone lid through the tiniest gap. She pushed it off with a grunt.

Eden barely heard the sound the lid made as it crashed onto the floor, her widening gaze frozen on what lay within the vessel. Gold threads of power laced the gallons of scarlet liquid inside.

Though she’d known what to expect, it was still shocking to see the evidence of the atrocity Elios had committed upon his own kin.

Loki cursed. “Is that the rest of Atropos and her sisters’ blood?!”

Eden fisted her hands. “Yes.”

“Destroy everything.” Bostrof stopped beside them, his voice lifeless. “Destroy this entire place.”

The bloodcursed magic she unleashed swept across the dungeon in a crimson blaze that granted Elios and his alchemists’ victims their final rites. The rest of the fortress suffered the same fate as they retraced their steps.

No one stopped Bostrof when he strode across the ground to slit the throat of the man Eden had imprisoned with her magic with a single swing of his sword. The former king of the Shadow Empire turned his face to the sky as Elios’s minion convulsed and grew still at his feet, his cheeks still damp from the tears he had shed.

It was a long time before he lowered his gaze to the forest of Bloodsand rising before them.

“Burn it all.”

The fire in Jamugei blazed long after they left the mountains. It was still smoldering when dawn broke across the land a few hours later.

Izaran stopped at the entrance of the valley leading to the colony. He turned and studied the smoke spiraling against the lightening sky, the horrors they had witnessed that night etched starkly in the lines of his face.

“My king, permit me and my men to follow you to Earth.”

Bostrof studied the demon for a silent moment before dipping his head. “I shall be glad of your company, my friend.”

15

“Do I look alright?”Mason Wilcox adjusted the knot in his tie and glanced nervously at Strickland.

“Relax,” the Argonaut director told the mayor. “They won’t bite.”

“Easy for you to say,” Wilcox grunted. “You’re not the one about to welcome a delegation of Gods and otherworldly beings coming to Earth for the first time.”

Morgan felt a trace of pity for the man. With the U.N. Security Council still scrambling to make final arrangements for the planet’s citizens to go to ground before the war began, Wilcox had been left in charge of receiving the allies who had pledged to defend the human realm against Elios’s forces.

“That Satoru guy pulled a fast one on him, huh?” Julia whispered.

“Totally,” Adrianne murmured.

Wilcox stiffened when he overheard the Argonaut agents. His alarmed gaze swung to Strickland. “Wait. You think he—?”

The director cut his eyes to Julia and Adrianne. “They’re pulling your leg.”

The pair did not look in the least bit repentant.

Zach sighed. Charlie observed the sorceress and the angel with a pinched expression.

Wilcox startled when everyone straightened. “What is it?”

“They’re coming,” Strickland said quietly.

Morgan only had to listen to the way his soul core sang to know the identity of the winged figure growing against the sky to the east.

Cassius landed on the knoll a moment later, his cheeks flushed from the wind. “Sorry, your sisters took a while to get ready.”